


Queen of Cups

by PostcardsfromTheoryland



Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Flash Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23492011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostcardsfromTheoryland/pseuds/PostcardsfromTheoryland
Summary: The Queen of Cups: intuition, compassion, understanding without judgementThe Red Lion knows more about Keith than she lets on.
Relationships: Keith & Red Lion (Voltron)
Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686346
Comments: 6
Kudos: 89





	Queen of Cups

So.

Keith was Galra.

Allura’s reaction, harsh, furious, disgusted, was honestly a relief compared to everyone else. At least Keith knew exactly where he stood with her. Shiro had tried to claim that everything was fine, but Keith could tell he was uncomfortable, leaving the infirmary almost immediately after he’d helped patch up the wound on Keith’s shoulder. The other paladins weren’t any better: Pidge had looked at him like...like he’d personally kidnapped her father and brother, and Hunk and Lance had seemed afraid of him. As if he was going to turn purple and grow claws and fangs and start terrorizing everyone on the bridge. He hadn’t been able to read Coran before he ran after Allura, but he was Altean, too, which probably meant he hated Keith just as much as the Princess did.

His body still ached, over half of him bruised from the Trials despite the weird pink cream he’d tried to use to dull the pain, but he couldn’t sleep. He’d just laid in bed for a good two hours, eyes constantly drawn to the knife sitting on the table next to him. Might as well get up and try to do something productive.

He thought about going to the kitchens, since he hadn’t had anything to eat since this morning, but he could hear Hunk muttering to himself from inside the room as he rounded the corner, and Keith didn’t want to disturb him. So he turned and headed for the lounge instead. There were a couple of horribly boring Altean documentaries they’d discovered did wonders for insomnia. Only as the doors to the lounge opened, Pidge and Lance whipped around to face him from where they’d clearly been having some important, private discussion on the couch, and Keith turned on his heel and left without a word. He didn’t want to hear them try to convince him that he hadn’t been the topic of their conversation.

The training deck, maybe. If he trained hard he might just pass out on the floor, which was a better alternative than pacing the hallways all night.

Except someone had locked him out of the training deck. Probably Allura, worried that giving Keith access to weapons would give him an edge when he ultimately betrayed them like Zarkon had.

He supposed it was only a matter of time before they kicked him off the team. Couldn’t trust a Galra, after all.

That thought in mind, he made his way to the Red Lion’s hangar. If he didn’t know when he was going to be forced to leave, he might as well say his goodbyes to her. Better to be prepared and do it now than miss out on his chance.

He was worried, for half a moment, that Red would reject him too, so it was a relief when she immediately lowered her head to let him into the cockpit. Her presence brushed against his mind as he entered, a subtle, gentle scolding. She had taken him back from the Blade’s base, after all, nothing but angry protectiveness and a reluctance to bring Antok and Kolivan back to the Castle; not because they were Galra, but because they’d hurt her paladin.

The moment she rose back up into a seated position, her particle barrier flickered into existence, sealing them off from the rest of the Castle.

“Thanks, Red,” Keith whispered, slumping tiredly into the seat. When the view into the hangar suddenly shifted to what looked like the inside of a volcano, he thought for a second that he’d managed to instantly fall asleep. But no, everything still hurt and he definitely felt it when he pinched his arm to check. “Red, what is…?”

The lions couldn’t communicate with words, not really - more like impressions, or ideas. It took a bit of mental back and forth for Keith to finally figure out what she was trying to say.

“This is..the past? Is this where you were before?”

She didn’t answer, just let the vision of the lava flow continue on. It was soothing, honestly, a cycle of the lava cooling, hardening, and then melting again, and Keith was half-asleep by the time the scene shifted. Lots of Galra, all shouting in excitement as they found her hiding place and forced her aboard a ship. He recognized Sendak, trying to blast his way through her particle barrier before giving up and leaving her locked in the hangar where Keith had found her.

He could feel everything she had felt: all the anger, the rage at being trapped, the panic over what would happen if the other lions were also captured, the despair over not being able to reach her rightful paladin. And then he felt it shift into disbelief and hope as he saw himself running into that same hangar.

“God, I was sort of a dick, wasn’t I? You waited all that time for me and I just stood there and yelled at you.” She paused on the display as a new screen popped up, pinpointing each of the lifeforms in the room before he’d stupidly opened up the hatch doors, listing off stats and info about each one. The display honed in on the little red-and-white blur that was him, and he gasped as he saw the info that came up next to him.

She had known. All along, the Red Lion had known that Keith was part Galra, and apparently she hadn’t given a damn.

“Oh.”

She brushed against his mind more purposefully as all the screens went dark, fading back into the present-day hangar, and this time it was easy to grasp her meaning.

 _Mine_.

Her paladin, despite everything.

“You mind if I sleep here tonight?” She answered by tilting the seat 180 degrees into a passable bed, before she dimmed the lights and then cranked the temperature up so he wouldn’t be cold without a blanket. “Don’t let anyone in, ok?”

She growled aloud at that, and the particle barrier glowed a deeper red as she fed more power into it.

Nothing and no one would get in to hurt her paladin.


End file.
